COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

2164th is Busted and Buying!

Last week, over at Belmont (RIP) I posted a link to this amazing photo.

No, I'm sorry, that was "The Man Who Captured Saddam Hussein. (Tip for old geezers, doubleclick on the photo to make it larger.)

This is the right one:
US soldiers loading prisoners aboard a Chinook from a one of the smallest lz's in the highest and most remote corners of the world. Now that's living!


I believe it was our now gracious host, who played the part of internet sceptic and questioned the authenticity of the photo. (HT to lls from scv.) I am happy to say that Snopes reports that the photo is authentic.

Sorry 2164th, you're busted, buy a round for the house later when the whole gang is here.

151 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, it brings to mind the evacuation of the embassy in Saigon back in '75, which makes this photo good fodder for the Daily Koz.

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  2. Those bottom dwellers will eat anything.

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  3. The most famous photo of the evacuation of Saigon was of an Air America Huey perched atop a very small rooftop cube.
    That photo wasn't taken at the American Embassy but at one of the many locations set around Saigon for the Vietnamese the CIA had hired over the years. The photos authentic ,it's just not the American Embassy.
    Almost all of the evacuations from the American Embassy took place near the pool in a courtyard where a beautiful Tamarind tree that was there forever,had to be chopped down to make room for the larger helos to land. Much to our shame we left behind almost 6,000 Vietnamese we had promised to eveacuate if it came to that..most perished in re-education camps and torture facilities once the NVA took over.
    the only rooftop evacuation I am Aware of was of the US.Marines fighting the NVA as they ascended stairs to the rooftop, locking doors all the way.

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  4. Every single congressman who had voted to cut off ammo to the ARVN should have, would have in another less screwed-up time, resigned upon the results of their grandstanding backstabbing pique.

    A little seppuku would not have been out-of-line, either.

    O/T but, China-watch:

    (should say, "PLA watch")

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  5. Well, perhaps there should be a few more doors locked

    "... Second, the presence of religion in this debate makes governments and individuals nervous. We are unsure how to engage; we hesitate to offend. Yet all major faiths — including Christianity, Islam and Judaism — teach that life is precious. We cannot allow what is essentially a death cult to get away with murder in the name of religion.

    It is in the best interest of all the civilized people that the terror stop. And we have a model. Slavery's path from international norm to pariah began with moral outrage. In 1833, one of every seven adults in Britain signed a petition against slavery. That was twice the number of people eligible to vote at the time and the largest public petitioning of Parliament to that date. The grassroots petition drive was born of the conviction that every person has value — a conviction that should guide us today.

    Our challenge is to launch a new grassroots movement across all faiths and continents, a movement that clearly states that no grievance, no complaint, no matter how legitimate, can ever justify the targeting and killing of innocent civilians. A movement that commits to teach our children that life is precious, diversity should be celebrated, and hope can conquer hate. ..."


    When are civilians innocent of the actions of their Leaders and the fish they allow to swim amongst them?

    Oh, the above quote is from Mrs Hughes, Mr Bush's right hand woman.

    So there you go habu, we have, as Mr Snow said, changed course. The answer is not military action against the Mohammedans and their base, but a grass roots movement to teach our children that life is precious, diversity should be celebrated, and hope can conquer hate.

    Hope carries the day at the White House.

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  6. buddy,
    "... A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2030, Chinese oil imports will equal imports by the U.S. Unless dramatic changes are made by Beijing in the areas of conservation, energy exploration and hybrid technologies, China’s future will rest beneath the sands of the Middle East. ..."

    So even if the US were to eliminate imports from the ME and Venezuela, the Mohammedans will retain their funding. The use of flex fuels, etc. will not end the Mohammedan Wars, nor even limit them.

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  7. Rat, as you must know, Karen Hughes was coaxed out of retirement, with the specific job of answering a crying need to develop a voice with which to explain administration policy to Muslim women.

    Almost no one anywhere--except of course the jihadis--will argue that Muslim women are not, long term, probably the *only* way out of jihadism--if only they can rise and organize.

    That's Karen Hughes' job and she's trying to do it.

    The statement you quote is just *one* statement issuing from the admin--it is not a major policy speech. The president himself has made five of those in last week or two. Hughes' is obviously a simple extension and elucidation of a facet of policy.

    Your criticisms are usually apt. This one is a little off your usual perspicacity.

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  8. And you're right--there is nothing on the horizon that offers any hope whatsoever of bringing down the jihad by squeezing off petroprofits.

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  9. desert rat,

    re: Mrs. Hughes and slavery

    Mrs. Hughes does not mention that the first modern European group to outlaw slavery was the Religious Society of Friends. Presumably (although very tentatively), she would not have the US model its approach to Islamofascists on the model of the Quakers?

    Moreover, from the banning of slave holding by Friends until the end of the Civil War was nearly a century, as I recollect. The US does not have a century to spend in gentlemanly debate and compromise.

    Mrs. Hughes has, however, given another glimpse into the philosophical underpinnings of the administration’s foreign policy. I am uncomfortable.

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  10. buddy larsen,

    re: Mrs. Hughes

    When by the administration's leave Mrs. Hughes sits for an interview for al Jazeera, the international voice of Jihad, how are Muslims to know she is without portfolio?

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  11. We could--this is just blue sky--even retreat to our coal and shale and deep-water/AMWAR drilling, and offer PRC a deal where they can just have the mideast if they will go in and do a Hulegu on the jihad. But then PRC industry operates for a tenth the BTU cost of ours.

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  12. Mr Bush is, has, been speaking for the Election, buddy.

    Mrs Hughes is speaking to the new reality. It, along with Mr Snow's statement, is a sign post to the future, not Electionering.

    Not many Muslim women read Mrs Hughes in USA Today. She is explaining where we are going, really. That is her job.

    There are always hints to the future in the words of the Staff, usually before the "big man" makes the switch. Especially when the Change of Course is in the "wrong" direction from the Electoral base.

    Mr Bolton, "Kofi is Okay". Mr Snow, "we've already changed course". Mrs Hughes, "Diversity and Hope are the weapons we will win with"

    All in the last week.

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  13. I admire wildcatters. Their optimistic can-do spirit is without peer. However, even the best wildcatter must confess the obvious and walk away from a dry hole.

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  14. ANWAR [sorry]

    Allen--that's the whole point, to present the *actual* totality of what America is about. Remember, the Al Jazz presentation is all about Amis shooting Muzzies for their property. Working the phrase "death cult' into an Al Jazz interview is something you & rat ought to be lauding, not criticizing. IMHO.

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  15. Islam is a death cult, buddy. It has not been hijacked.
    No more so than the US Government has been, though both perspectives have their proponents.

    Until that is recongnized, there is no War that can be won.

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  16. Well, hell, you two have been deriding "stay the course" and calling for better war-fighting. Does 'better war-fighting' not include better psy-ops? the problem with ;'hearts & minds' is in the execution--the concept is sound as hell--cheaper to disarm with a ballot than a bullet.

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  17. Look at the news from Colorado City, there US citizens are in the grips of a religous Sect. The women are the real backbone of the movement, as well as it's victims.

    The Mohammedan society is a mirror image of Colorado City, writ large.

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  18. I think there's too much truth in Rat's 11:07 observation.

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  19. Grab 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

    The new administrators of Abu G know the way to winning hearts and minds of their own people. As did the commander of the ISF in Tanji, the one that the US commander wanted relieved for being to aggresive.

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  20. Well, if Hughes' ideas were meant to replace boots, it would for sure be a disaster. But boots are only being complemented a little, with more h&m. Power to 'em, it's about time we fought better propaganda.

    Link to Colorado City thing?

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  21. Try this one from Las Vegas Weekly
    or this google search.

    Those folk have been up there for decades, just now making the news, as the Law tries to take them down.

    So far the Hearts and Mind campaign has been a failure, arrests (military action) though are starting to take their toll.

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  22. re: Mrs. Hughes

    When did the administration come to believe that Islamic societies respected the thoughts of women such as Mrs. Hughes, or found women in power tolerable to their precious patriarchal hypersensitivity? The only two Muslim, public intellectual females daring to question the misogynist bent of Islam or the virtue of Jihad are under constant guard.

    Did anyone consider that many millions of Muslims of both sexes might have found Mrs. Hughes's lecturing, effrontery?

    No doubt, the best intelligence of State and CIA gave Mrs. Hughes a green light, and as both she and Mr. Bush apparently believe, the world is just the largest version of Midland.

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  23. Would that it were, would that it were.

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  24. Oh, i gotcha, rat--it's the warren jeff's cult. I had thought Colrado City, Colorado, had a new outbreak.

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  25. DR,
    I agree with you. Karen Hughes is not making policy extemporaneously in making those statements. She works at the DIRECT instructions from the President who peomised her that access to get her out of retirement.

    Additonally Allen at 10:24 brings up th salient matter. When she sits for an interview with AL Jez, how do they know she is without portfolio? My answer would be that they know the close association she had with W in his first term and the events surrounding her return, so they know she is speaking for the administration ... however it's the old cut-out, pluasable deniability, that is built inot all diplomacy that interrogatories are sacrificed (verball) if the matter turns to caca.
    DR, I must admit that a hard reassessment is taking place on my pre-election strike position and have started eating only the dark meat at Colonel Sanders in anticipation of having to go full crow ... gosh I hate gett'in wobbly, but as i said yesterday before I said it would be before the mid terms ,I thought it might be after the mid terms, but then committed to a before mid term strategy that I have now renamed...flexible-nonobjectionable-pre-post-erous "action"

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  26. Better war fighting is upping the scrotal torque, such as what is probably going on at AbuG right now.

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  27. habu, that's the time-honored "implausable deniability" non-cut-out explanation.

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  28. can't beat "wings & legs" as a side-dish to "hearts & minds", tho.

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  29. "Conservatives these days are dejected that the president's rhetoric appears less-than-reinforced by the decisions and actions of the national -security establishment. But viewed from Tehran, Washington has continued to raise the stakes—and quite skillfully united the international community—against Iran's nuclear program. Nearly 60% of the public in France would approve the use of force before allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons."
    link

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  30. buddy larsen wrote:

    can't beat "wings & legs" as a side-dish to "hearts & minds", tho.

    I had you pegged as a breast man, buddy. I prefer thighs myself.

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  31. buddy larsen

    But then PRC industry operates for a tenth the BTU cost of ours.

    Its amazing how many $15 shoes a former Tiannenmen Square critic can sew together when you stand over them with a whip.

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  32. TEHRAN, Iran -- Iraq's prime minister made his first official visit to Iran on Tuesday, asking Tehran to prevent al-Qaida militants from slipping across the border to carry out attacks, an Iraqi official said. Iran's president promised to help Iraq establish security. ...

    ... Haidar al-Obadi, a parliament member from al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said "there are al-Qaida members and al-Qaida strongholds in Iran."

    He said the militants have been "taking advantage of the long border" to smuggle weapons and people into Iraq "most likely without the Iranian government's knowledge." ...

    ...Asked at a joint press conference following their talks about allegations that Iran was interfering in Iraq, al-Maliki said, "There is no obstacle in the way of implementing agreements between Iran and Iraq."

    "All our assistance to the Iraqi people will be to establish complete security in this country,"
    Ahmadinejad said, according to a state-run news agency report of the press conference. "Iran and Iraq enjoy historical relations. These relations go beyond from neighborly ties. Our relations will remain excellent.

    "We consider Iraq's progress, independence and territorial integrity as our own,"
    Ahmadinejad said.

    Ahmadinejad also said Iran hoped the United States will leave Iraq soon.

    "This trip will strengthen bilateral relations. Iran and Iraq, as two brotherly neighbors, will stand by each other and unwanted guests (U.S.-led coalition forces) will leave the region," he said.

    Al-Maliki described the talks as "very constructive" and called Iran "a very important country, a good friend and brother."


    Personally I think that Mr Maliki has a better idea of Iran's real position, vis a vie their bilateral relationship and Iranians future influence in Iraq and the region than Mario Loyola.

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  33. hey, at my age, teresita, it's always well-fried.
    :-\

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  34. rat, the two-country map is wanting to spin about 30 degrees clockwise, alright, and add another entity or two between 9 and 3.

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  35. The southern Iraq fields are running trouble free, @ 2.1 mm bpd--more than ever.

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  36. Putin said, the other day, that Russia's 3% of energy sales "to the east" will be raised to 30% (tenfold), over the "next 10 to 15 years".

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  37. In 1942-43, the slogan among US servicemen fighting Japan from the south Pacific was "Golden Gate in '48". JCS figured another 18 months, after VE, whenever VE would be, to beat Japan. Then things broke differently of course, but your dads and grampas were psyched to a war to 1948.

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  38. I guess my point is, we need to take a deep breath and try to hang around the fuel tank awhile, if we can, so we can get alternatives up well and good. The rivals of the west are trying to off-foot us and steal a march on building up with available oil while building us down as the reciprocal.

    And the Dems want to "redeploy" in order to win some electoral offices. Dumbasses, dumbasses, dumbasses.

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  39. Jack2, the new deepwater discovery 275 miles outta New Orleans, will come on stream in 2010, estimates the operating partnersip.

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  40. did I miss the "veggie of the day" or should we put that to sleep?

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  41. well, i googled [turnip association] hoping for a funny, and ended up finding a site with about a jillion full books online and ready-to-read. Bless you, habu!

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  42. A Study of Association in Insanity by Grace Helen Kent - Full Text ... - 9:20amA Study of Association in Insanity by Grace Helen Kent. Part 9 out of 14 ... turnip 20 turnips 6 unnecessary 1 unwholesome 1 Valhalla 1 vegetable 294 ...
    www.fullbooks.com/A-Study-of-Association-in-Insanity9.html - 46k - Cached - Similar pages

    ( the above caught my eye, on the results for 'turnip association'. Mz Kent evidently has written a 14-part treatise on turnip madness. Good thing she's sane--the world would have had to forgo the scholarship--ed. note )

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  43. Buddy,

    It's great finding sites while looking for something else. The books on is a great example.

    on the veggie thing .. well i'm all for allowing freedom-of-palate rule to stay in effect. in other words unless it's a slow day (Tony Snow breifing on fox now)......

    lets let the turnip be the definitive word on a food.

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  44. Fine with me, habu. Other things turnip, and food can go on the back burner until we're cooked.

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  45. 12:31:48 PM Teresita:
    "Stay Out da Bushes!"

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  46. China Looks to the Middle East
    By Frederick W. Stakelbeck Jr.
    FrontPageMagazine.com | September 12, 2006


    In late July, Qiushi, a state-controlled publication and recognized mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese communist party, released an essay stating that China should strengthen its military to safeguard against “instability and threats to national security.” More important for China’s neighbors, the essay said, “At present, the political and military environment on China’s periphery is quite complex, and unpredictable factors are clearly rising.” The Pentagon’s most recent Quadrennial Defense Review, a military forecast delivered to Congress, confirmed Beijing’s change in thinking, saying, “China’s military modernization has taken on an “extra-regional” capability, which will allow Beijing to project military power far beyond its immediate perimeter.”


    As China’s needs have evolved, so too has its foreign policy. Although still critical to Beijing, the country’s foreign policy is no longer based entirely on Taiwan reunification. Rather, Beijing’s foreign policy has become more complex and increasingly global in nature, driven primarily by the country’s insatiable need for energy to fuel its economic and military expansion.


    With a 2.3 million-man standing army, the world’s largest, and a defense budget estimated to be US $90 billion by most Pentagon experts, China is rapidly positioning itself to address not only the unresolved issue of Taiwan, but also energy security issues located far beyond its borders in the Middle East. Today, 58% of China's oil imports come from the Middle East region. By 2015, that figure will stand at 70%.


    A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2030, Chinese oil imports will equal imports by the U.S. Unless dramatic changes are made by Beijing in the areas of conservation, energy exploration and hybrid technologies, China’s future will rest beneath the sands of the Middle East.


    Beijing recently increased its presence in energy-rich Iran, where a joint agreement was announced in July to develop the Khustan province, home to 90 percent of Iran’s strategic oil reserves and a border province with Iraq. In early August, Tehran announced a US$2.7 billion oil refinery deal with China’s state-controlled Sinopec that will help the Tehran regime expand its rationed gasoline supply. China has also increased its energy and defense relations with U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt.


    Make no mistake; Chinese President Hu Jintao and the country’s communist leadership would like nothing more than to divest themselves entirely from Middle East energy and the uncomfortable dependence it creates. But like the US and its Western allies, Beijing remains heavily dependent on Middle East oil for its survival.


    To address the issue of Middle East energy dependence, Beijing has agreed to cooperate with countries in Africa, North America and South America regarding production, exploration and pipeline projects. But in many cases, hopes for a quick remedy have been dashed, with state-owned energy conglomerates meeting organized resistance from local populations who view China as an energy “exploiter,” not energy “explorer.”


    Indeed, the likelihood of a U.S.-China confrontation in the Middle East over energy is increasing. To meet this challenge, the Bush administration should broaden the ongoing “China threat” discussion to include more than just Taiwan. Previous statements by U.S. national security experts dismissing China as merely a “regional threat unable to project power beyond Asia,” are shortsighted.


    In addition, the belief that economic empowerment alone will eventually force Beijing to embrace democratization, thus eliminating the growing China threat, is based on wishful thinking, not fact. Ironically, economic empowerment has had the opposite effect, giving Beijing a means to project economic, political and military influence well beyond Asia.


    While recent U.S. naval exercises to improve rapid response capabilities in the Pacific are prudent at this time, they should be made in conjunction with an upgrade of Middle East military forces. Of course, selling this idea to the American public and Congress will be no easy task. The development of a bifurcated China threat strategy focusing not only on the Pacific, but also on other areas such as the Middle East will require a revolution in U.S. foreign policy. Under such a scenario, China would be identified not only as a regional threat, but a global threat as well.


    The Bush administration needs to revise its “Taiwan-centric” foreign policy strategy and identify other emerging threats to U.S. national security, namely, China’s increasing presence and influence in the volatile Middle East. An emerging China presents profound challenges for the world. It is Washington’s responsibility to recognize this changing environment and prepare, otherwise, the result could be catastrophic for future generations of Americans.

    Click Here to support Frontpagemag.com.

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  47. 1:13:13 PM Would an underwater Equivalent of the Manhatten Project yield results measured in years?
    (seems like it would have to at least in terms of volumn produced by given date)

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  48. No deadlines or timelines allowed, doug. It'd only give Hugo and Abracadbra reason to act, sooner.

    We can go with condition based production, but no schedule of expectations can be discussed. Less it encourages competition or completion.

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  49. Doug, increased development funding--a la Uncle Sam--can't help BUT speed up the operations.

    However, the expertise is all private, so the form it would have to take is "tax breaks for the oil companies", a phrase you may have heard from time to time.

    Democrats won't tell you that the force-multiplier of focused tax-breaks, as an incentive to private investment (buying the stocks of the companies partly on the basis of bottom-line enhancements resulting partly from tax breaks--aka "not quite as much as could be charged"), is very great, and costs the taxpayers far, and provably, less in forgone taxes than it returns in production of energy.

    It's called "financial efficiency", or just "efficiency" for short.

    A known economic principle, tho you wouldn't know it by listening to the leftoid pols.

    And furthermore, if your oil exec didn't have to put up with ignernt-ass populist demagoguery, the company might not have have to pay him quite so high a salary.

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  50. Jimmy Carter's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was an attempt to insert the government into the marketplace (where it has been since wildcatter days anyway, in the form of "allowables" and "depletion allowancess") proved to be an extremely costly way to develop shortages and hyper-high prices in the shortest and most dis-orienting way possible.

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  51. Habu:
    From what I can gather, China looks not only to the Middle East but all over the world. According to a Thomas P.M. Barnett , they are in the business of business. they are major players in the new globalist era, forging connections that will take them well into the twenty-first century.

    Meanwhile, the US is a Gulliver tied down by Lilliputians.

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  52. FOR SALE:

    Single signed Babe Ruth baseball.
    Excellent condition.
    Bidding begins at $17,000. $500 increments thereafter. Reserve set.

    Habu

    will go on E-bay shortly

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  53. Whit, the corporate scandals of the 90s, which fell fast and furious out of the shadows in the year after 911, resulted in the Sarbanes-Oxley Bill ("sarbox"), which laudably increased the US oversight ability of US regulators and the US compliance incentives for US business, has also driven a lot of business overseas (esp global start-ups needing a national registration)--to China and India, where the extra costs and delays--and the fact that execs have to be personally liable for their company books--do not apply. China, universally known to be a bit blind to sharp & roiugh business practices, is not the least concerned with the whispers as they range the world locking up resources and development partnerships.

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  54. The Chicoms care little for those Muslims dying in Darfur, as long as their arrangement with the Mohammedans is secure.

    Whispered or screamed from the roof tops, makes no difference.

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  55. It was things like sarbox--among many other more dramatic things waiting in the future--to which Robert Bartley was referring when, in the early 90s, and after carefully examining the character and dynamics of Bill Clinton, he began writing columns in the WSJ about how "the shoes will continue to drop for a long time" after this president is out of office.

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  56. Buddy:

    They can run but they can't hide from a powerful populist poitician. It seems to me that Bush Admin Corporate prosecutions have been poll driven. Given that government has a reverse midas touch, we can probably expect to see more business derailment legislation in the future. Particularly under the Dems whose idea of public enemy number one is Walmart.

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  57. Whit,
    Chinas aim is to take us down. This is outlined in a book that has been read by WH staff and Pentagon Brass.
    "Unrestricted Warfare".
    They are building a blue water navy projected to be larger than ours, they are developing "enveloping" relationships globally, and believe they will be able to take down the paper tiger with little difficulty in the coming decades.
    Internally ,however they are in chaos. The interior of China experienced almost 20,000 peasant/farmer riots last year. There is a overwhelming and gowing dichotomy between the coastal cities new wealth and the continued explotation of the laborer/farmer and concomitant poverty.
    This will be our wedge to unsettle their plans,although a Maoist "hundred flowers" or a Tiananmen Square redux could easily derail their plans.
    It looks right now they're going for "containment",greater production at lower cost and a mutifaceted approach toward attacking us via our tecnological systems vulnerabilities.

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  58. Rat:
    This guy, Colonel Barnett, is a very interesting figure. He makes no bones about shilling for globalist interests but he ties it in neatly with security. He seems to advocate taking a long, pragmatic view. I saw him on C-Spann giving a slick appraisal of global commerce and security concerns.

    A "Rising Star."

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  59. The connection is simple--the business-crippling, thus China-helping, USA rules for USA biz, came directly out of reaction to the "white-collar lawless" atmosphere, zeitgeist, and practices, which blossomed under the Clinton presidency.

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  60. no prop wash and no dust flying about certainly makes the picture suspicious.

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  61. Habu:

    Looks to me like they're just playing our game and siphoning off our wealth. By the time they're done, they won't have to take us down. In the meantime, they need us as much as we need cheap goods at Walmart. We should devote more time to doing what we do best, good old fashioned capitalism. As far as a blue water navy and other matters military we should watch like hawks but do we need to signal malevolent intentions?

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  62. Funny, the Chicoms will spend $2.7 billion USD to build oil refineries in Iran. to cement their relationship. Meanwhile the US spends nearly the same in Iraq, building cement blast barricades for the Green Zone, etc.

    Which will be more appreciated by the natives, in the battle for hearts & minds?

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  63. I'm not so sure all that internal unrest in PRC isn't a disinformation ploy. Helps PRC keep the Yuan out of floating with the mature currencies.

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  64. Ideology and human rights are luxury goods, rat.

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  65. Whit,
    I don't fault any of their methods. We do the same or use to. I think there's no chance for anyone to really take us down in our lifetime but we do need to remain alert, learn our times tables,eat good food, and get plenty of rest.
    Also young men should get as much,ah,ah, "pleasure" as they can while they are young.
    So, vigilance,food,sleep,oh yeah some PT and, if your going to die for a word.."make mine poon-tang"

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  66. I have acquaintances in Western China (missionarys (sic?) in Hunan Province). They report that mission work is tolerated if kept discrete. It seems to me from their reports and photos (stateside debriefings so to speak) that the standard of living is continuously improving. More cars, more leisure, (he builds sail boats and gives sailing lessons.)

    Also, interesting it seems that the Chinese have determined that Christianity is much more acceptable than Islam.

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  67. buddy,
    could easily be disinfo. I gotz no way of know'in.

    I'll ask Possum"takee-outee"tater if he knows.

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  68. This Col Barnett,
    Author of Future War?

    "... The changes are pretty drastic, as suggested by the following sample:

    radical alterations to current air defense operations,
    CONUS-positioned command,
    low signature becomes key to successful military operations,
    the potential of stealthy cruise missiles to dominate warfare,
    the probable end of large invasion forces.
    This is a book about the future and about aerospace war in the future. It is a book all warriors should read.
    WILLIAM A. OWENS
    Admiral, USN
    Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs
    of Staff

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  69. DR.

    I'll take oil refineries for 2.7 billion.

    "what wins hearts and minds in an oil rich nation withou enough refining capacity?

    did I get it right?

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  70. WTH do we know? As I've said several over at Belmont, we're just old men sittin' in the back of store with our view of the world limited to four walls and obstructed by a wood stove.

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  71. Oil prices are in plummet (IAEA just cut global consumption growth estimates), and the oil shorts are making big bucks. Now, CNBC is reporting that Sen. Feinstein will look into these short funds, to examine their profits. I won't defend hedge funds, but the shorts help to stabilize mkts by providing liquidity, and if the gov't decides to chill the workings of the mkts, you better look out--gov'ts in markets are like being a little bit pregnant.

    but what the hell, 70% of global oil production is from foreign government entities anyway.

    Maybe we oughtta jine up. It'd sure happy-up the Dems.

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  72. Luxuries not appreciated by the unemployeed or the ill fed, historicly speaking.

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  73. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  74. Buddy:

    Feinstein case in point re: Populist.

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  75. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  76. If it is the same Col Barnett, this scenario makes for interesting reading

    The Chicoms attack Russia along the Maritime Provinces.

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  77. Rat: No, Future War is by Col Jeffrey Barnett.

    I may be wrong about the "Colonel" rank for Dr. Thomas Barnett.

    If you go to the link, you'll see his bio as well as a list of his published works.But nothing about a commisioned rank.

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  78. I was guessing, whit, about Mr Barnett, cause the link ain't there, it's not "blue"

    Yes, habu, I think you get the prize, for the hearts and minds influence package comparison.

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  79. Well sure, the price goes up, the needs to be an investigation. If it goes down, there needs to be an investigation.

    Heads I win, tails you lose.

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  80. Rat: The link is Thomas P.M. Barnett.

    You probably weren't looking in the 2:41 post, it's there.

    http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/

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  82. The oil patch will always be in the gov'ts "public" crosshairs, but the truth is in the books, profits are mid-range for industrial sectors, and with the 35%corporate tax and then the gasoline taxed again at the pump @ around fifty cents, the Feds have got to worry about bungling some real pork-barrel cash opportunities if they ever put their mouth where the money is.

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  83. I found it.
    Thomas Barnett, the Gap man.

    Just read his weblog which tells me that we should:
    "... get better at the second half, extend our nets, make new markets, deliver real freedom, and render terrorists the same glorified criminals in a shrunken Gap that they are in a connected expanding Core.

    And the technology we bring won't be about killing. It'll be about connecting. ..."


    So if we deliver wireless Inet to Iraq, all will be good? The Mullahs will settle down when the are "connected"?
    I'm skeptical, to say the least.
    Seems the Doc has a post War program, but not a War program.

    Same disconnect we've suffered from in Iraq, seems to me, today.

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  85. No, buddy, I'm more into reds, yellows and orange.

    You've got to defeat the enemy, before you rebuild his Society and Culture. Or so I've been told.

    Perhaps you've got some historical references of the opposite, but I'll start with Romans and Carthage and stand pat.
    Though if forced, I'll raise on the next card, got plenty of references for my way of thinking.

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  86. Here’s a Barnett column Knox News where he talks about “connecting” (his buzz word) and globalization.
    Interestingly, he writes about what we were batting around earlier:
    Globalization brings networks. Networks are gender neutral. Provide such connectivity to traditional society, and you'll turn it upside down by empowering women disproportionally to men.
    Put most crudely, this Long War will see us liberating females through economic connectivity while killing off self-righteous young men standing in the way.
    Why do fundamentalists deny real education to young girls? Because that's where all this "trouble" starts.
    No modern economy has ever developed without liberating its women first with expanded economic opportunity, then social change (often related to birth control) and finally political participation.

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  87. He is right about that, whit, no doubt in my mind of it.
    But the Mohammedans are basicly illiterate, the women more so than the men. How do "connect" to them, without defeating their men, whom Doc Barnett says "while killing off self-righteous young men standing in the way"

    At an average of three per day, the CIA's count, we've really got a "Long War" ahead of US.

    Would it not be better if the average was upped by ten or one hundred fold?

    The Colorado City, AZ example is all the more powerful in this "connection" argument. Those women have real options and choose servitude, for themselves and their own daughters.
    Boggles my mind, but they do.

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  88. heh--i wuz but joking on the super-long blue link that you took down, rat--not your mood-ring color.

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  89. You've got a point about accelerating the killing to liberate the women quicker.

    But then, what the heck are we gonna do with all those widow women? I don't want to support 'em.

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  90. Ms T can handle those widows, whit.
    Bet she and her friends are chomping at the bit for the opportunity.
    Part and parcel of being connected.

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  91. connectivity may not help the illiterate but it will help the next level up. I don't think Hitler or stalin could've gotten off the ground, in the internet age. too much info out there to sell the people on the "hostile neighbor" that needs warrin' on.

    Course, maybe I have that upside down.

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  93. Maybe we oughtta form a corp of airborne lezbo-feminists. Drop 'em over Iranian villages while all the men are off at the hangin's. Let 'em open them chadorian eyes a little.

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  94. Yeah, that info is a two-edged sword, Buddy. What's being presented depends on who is doing the presenting.

    Seems to me, we need to assemble a "denial-of-service" battalion to combat the disinformation and propaganda of the evil doers.

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  95. But, jeez, the lezbo-fems may end up with the Bomb. That'd be rough.

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  96. As I recall, buddy, literacy rates in the ME are very low. There are no books but the Koran, which is learned by rote. You've seen those kids bobbing up and down while reciting it chapeter and verse.

    Seems the BC has finally found it's way to Pakistan. Hell that was the topic months ago, when you thought I was getting emotional. Then the General President moved in 80,000 troops. Now he's signed an internal peace treaty and, man o man, some people there take it seriously.
    As if the General President was guilty of all the things which we accused Saddam of, which of course, he is.

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  97. FemiNazis are interested in helping third world women only when it is not seen as being beneficial to GWB.

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  98. The emotional thing was, seeming to advocate an invasion of Pakistan--which has in addition to a large Islamist population, a large western-business-oriented English-speaking, nominally at least pro-American, middle-class. The class which keeps Musharref in office, and is to all appearances the deadly enemy of the jihad.

    Paki business people are all over Wall Street selling projects--and finding takers, from among the truly hard-nosed money people. Look at the Paki funds, look at their economic growth rates. Listen to their 'international class" talk.

    As I've tried to say before, yes, the population is shot-thru with wahabs, but no formations we can bust up without bringing down too the westernized elite & middle-classes, and with them the hope for a less bloody ending to this weird war.

    That's where the 'emotion' bit came from--I didn't think you were looking at the whole Paki picture.

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  99. No, just the folk that are at War with US. In Warizistan, you know the aQ and the Taliban

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  100. whit--you're damn sure right about that. Been so since the silence on the freeing of the truly oppressed Taliban women. Kinda lets ya know what the western feminists' commitment really is, doesn't it.

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  101. And anyone that supplies them Sanctuary, as Mr Bush said so elequently in '02.

    If that is the middle class of Pakistan, well they've got to pay the piper, just like the Sauds, Iranians and Syrians have yet to.

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  102. right, rat--but Musharref has to control it. Unless we want to subvert him fatally.

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  103. He seems to have given up on the Project, buddy. The easiest way to "control" the situation.
    The proliferation failures of Mr Reagan and Mr Bush 41 may be of much greater cost than any Mr Clinton had with Osama, concerning 9-11.
    Real nuclear capacity much more deadly than 737's could ever be.

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  104. Yep--a lot happened off in the boonie-shadows while the Giant Bear was being euthanized. Too damn bad Goerge Mitchell's invention of today's now-familiar but then shocking left-attack, occupied so much of what was left over from the geopolitical campaign.

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  105. "campaign" wrong word. "struggle" is more true.

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  106. Irangate instead of AQ Khan, Monicagate instead of AQ. Enough.

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  107. Nap over,still in that post nap haze ..BUT, I have a BLOG hint for new bloggers.

    #1 always read the little blue "you can go here and read all about it" things. This will help you immensely in not looking like you are a vegetable..example

    At 10:15 Buddy used a blue thing.
    Habu blew by the blue thing.
    THEN
    THREE HOURS AND 42 MINUTES LATER
    Habu thinks he's discovered an pearl of wisdom and post's Buddy's 10:15 all over again.

    Remember new bloggers. Read the blue things. Habu had not discoverd a pearl of wisdom. He had discovered life on earth as a vegetable.

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  108. The Islamists have seen Dr. Barnett's future, and they don't want it.

    OBL is the Luther of Islam. His pre-911 broadcasts were the "99 Theses". Islamists desire a return to the roots of Islam, and especially its taproot, militant Jihad.

    No amount of sweet reason by Mrs. Hughes or anyone else has or will have any impact on a culture that quite rightly sees a closing of the "gap" as an introduction to secularism. Being no fools, a'Q and company know very well that secularism is the death of pure Islam.

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  109. On a serious note, how do I get me a fatwah agin the little woman?

    Oh, brothers, I had to spend hours today doing yard work. Allah is not pleased!

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  110. Teresita said to Buddy<
    "I had you pegged as a breast man, buddy. I prefer thighs myself."

    Habu learned early to always workout at the "Y"

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  111. Later I'll explain some of the in's and out's of a hard workout at the Y.

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  112. New bloggers

    lesson #2 always contribute something important to the thread, but don't be hairless about your remarks, ah careless.

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  113. Ah, the "y"-- great place for a member in good standing to workout.

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  114. And Buddy,
    members dues are just a drop in the bucket.

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  115. Allen,
    yardwork, the best reason to live ina camper truck parked at Wal Mart.

    Get yourself to Dafusky island SC. There are several active voodoo priests that will provide you with the tools forless toil.
    Google "Gullah" so you can converse.

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  116. ugh--have to go deal with teenagers--ugh--ugh---

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  117. Buddy,
    Another reson to live in a camper truck in the parking lot at Wal Mart.

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  118. Just over viewing comments at the Belmont Club.

    I didn't watch the ABC mini series but on the question of grabbing or taking a shot at OBL I think "garbled tansmission" would have been my defense once he was in hand.
    Then, as with Geo.Patton when he took Palermo (after being told to just cover Monty's left flank) the Delta leader could always ask if he should give him back. Then let Clinton answer that one for the ages.

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  119. rufus and all ohter EB sensitive souls,

    Goats and casual wear

    While returning my computer to full function, it occurred to me that we here at the EB are missing a marvelous business opportunity as well as outreach, aiding Mrs. Hughes in her efforts to present a kinder, gentler, ugly American.

    Goats. To us of the West, these critters are respected producers of fine wool, milk, and extremely stinky cheese. However, our Muslim brothers have a soft place in the hearts and a hard spot in their pants for four legged nannies. That being the case, the great Shi’a Master Sistani recommends that goats be modestly clothed, lest the brothers are constantly enticed to lustfully dip the wick into crusty nether parts of the sensuous, doe-eyed ungulates.

    This now brings me to the topic of this post, casual wear for goats; of a modest nature, to be sure. Formal wear or bridal wear needn’t concern us just yet because the honorable Sistani remains opposed to inter-species dating or marriage. Also, and this is a real plus bound to cause resent among Muslim feminists, veils are voluntary.

    If we work a business plan and act quickly, Walmart Asia will be found playing catch-up in what will prove to be a vast unrecognized niche. Think of the number of goats in Muslim lands and the millions of Muslim lusty lads.

    Forget oil futures. This idea so neo and so 21st C that we just have to go for it! I feel so blessed.

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  120. Well, bob, there are about 6,000 particpants in the cult, about 4,000 or more are women.

    There are 1.2 Billion in the Islamic cult, about half are women.

    The mentality is scalable, I'd venture to guess.

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  121. Let us then address ourselves to our task, not in any way underrating its tremendous difficulties and perils, but in good heart and sober confidence, resolved that, whatever the cost, whatever the suffering, we shall stand by one another, true and faithful comrades, and do our duty, God helping us, to the end.

    Winston Churchill

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  122. Winston talks good, like a Prime Minister should!

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  123. Allen,
    I believe you've received a revelation born of yard work.
    Your ID conducted a raid on your superego and ego.

    The id ("das Es", cf. Latin id, English it, German es) is the psychical system "which behaves as though it were the Unconscious", or the "dynamically unconscious repressed", in effect, the reservoir of need-gratification impulses such as the primitive instinctual drives of sexuality and aggression. Freud believed that the id is inborn, operating on the dynamics of the primary process mode of thinking.

    You have fused grass and ass. Your ID relaized that if you had a goat, the goat could trim the lawn, thus saving your energies for domestic pleasure of the flesh.
    The ID, expanding as it does in particularly bright people went deep,very deep into helping solve international problems with Freudian methodology, thus the goat panties fantasy.
    Allen remember to stay hydrated and always wear a hat when doing yardwork.
    best regards for a smooth recovery,Habu & Semper Fi

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  124. Buddy,
    Smoked those for about 3 years, then changed to Camel filters for 2 years..then quit..that was 36 years ago ..but damn with a cup of joe, or after a meal ...noth'in finer ... of course they were 25 cents a pack.

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  125. Bob Smith said in part:

    "One of the design constraints in Information Technology is “scalability” which refers to the “robustness” of the algorithm to orders of magnitude that range from nano-scale to geologic time. The dimensions must be scalable as well."

    Now is that anyway for a lady to talk after dinner?

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  126. The urban women are open to outside influences and input. They watch the news, read the paper, listen to the radio, surf the net. The influences are diverse, in an open marketplace of ideas.

    In Colorado City that is not the case, nor is it in most of Mohammedland. The inputs there are very limited.

    The urban women's attitude was, to me, surprising. Mortgage moms I think they are labeled this cycle.
    Also I had expected many many more flags than I saw flying yesterday.

    Seems a portent to me, one that I had intellectually predicted, but still found both surprising and disturbing amongst that select group and the local society, in general.

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  127. Bobbie, then, jeez--have some moicy--

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  129. The subject was "connectivity" and personal and feminist and secular liberation.
    Some folks, for some reason, reject the very idea. Seems to me that religous indoctrination has a lot to do with it.
    When that indoctrination spans the entire life of the person, and is considered the norm for the group, my idea is that forced connectivity will fail, as it has here, in the CC example.
    As a Policy for dealing with the Mohammedan Wars, I think, connectivity will fail as well.

    Post War it may have a viable place in rebuilding their society.

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  130. Well, bob, at 11:07 am I wrote
    ... The Mohammedan society is a mirror image of Colorado City, writ large. ..."

    So I do not think I have introduced a sly twist or shift.

    It is how I began the analogy.

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  131. In that, bob, we agree.

    Not many others, especially in the Federal Government, seem to agree with us.

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  132. Dr. Larry Summers simply asked a question, in passing. If instead, he had asked the question hypothetically, he would have been within the historical purpose and mission of the academy. His alleged position is, by the way, sustained by science, as opposed to feminism.

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  133. Barry Goldwater in absentia. Rat can channel him. The 64 election is what we need to back up to, and re-do.

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  134. It was a power experiment in a laboratory. Nobody won; all looked like they were doing exactly what they were doing--which was exercising power for the sake of exercising power.

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  135. the Glorious Revolution in a teacup, complete with Citizen Committees and guillotine-in-metaphor.

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  136. i hate it when me own woids come back a' me.

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  137. Yes--an artifact of luxury, for sure.

    "let us eat cake!"

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  138. bob smith; 10:09:14 PM

    re: Sustained by science - to date - which is what?

    British Journal of Psychology
    www.mbs.ac.uk/Research/
    documents/irwing/BJP86.fdf

    Male to female ratio of 2.3:1 with IQs of 130+, 3:1 with IQs of 145+, and 5.5:1 with IQs of 155+



    Low-IQ Debate
    http://www.nationalreview.com/
    lukas/lukas200508300821.asp

    “The disparity is more pronounced at higher levels, with three men for every woman scoring above 130 and more than five men per woman above 145 IQ.”

    “It's preposterous to assume, however, that the only explanation for differences between men and women is discrimination, and to try to shield women from evidence that suggests otherwise.”



    'Men cleverer than women' claim
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
    education/4183166.stm

    “Their research was based on IQ tests given to 80,000 people and a further study of 20,000 students.”
    “There were twice as many men with IQ scores of 125, for example, a level said to correspond with people getting first-class degrees.
    At scores of 155, associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.”

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  139. maybe, bobbie, the testing itself is more a masculine form.

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  140. i mean, throw some fabric swatches in there and the numbers'd go your way, fer sher.

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  141. We must never allow science to intrude into a perfectly good, PC meme.

    Larry Summers is a decent man, whose only mistake was believing that Harvard still held fast the principles of the University. Principles, I might add, existent since the founding of the University of Paris. Foremost of these is the absolute necessity to examine and question everything.

    What Summers did not comprehend was the change in academia since his entering MIT at age 16. Rather than a place of rational, scholarly inquiry, the contemporary university is more akin to a madrassa, i.e. history has ended, "knowledge" is fixed, and questioning orthodoxy is heretical.


    bob smith,

    Excuse me, "Eat my heart" does not compute.

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  142. Was rather an Inquisition of an apostate's mal-adherence to an Orthodoxy, at that.

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  143. The research reported by the British Journal of Psychology has been and is being rigorously peer reviewed. Some of the reviewing scientists have had PC agendas. Even one of the study's authors is "uncomfortable" with the outcome, but ethically bound to support the findings.

    To date, despite considerable visceral venting, the research has not been falsified.

    The male to female Mensa membership ratio is 2:1.

    The ratios on the old SAT show the similar distributions. No data is yet available on the new SAT.

    The ratios cited by me from the research are found on Page 25. Sorry for failing to give that information earlier.

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  144. well, from the natural selection pov, it could be no other way--the less adept males became sabre-tooth dinner, so the hunters would select more rigorously than the child-bearers. Of course, the child-bearers are more important--the sine-qua-non, really, of the clan's life--so the genetic IQ results are nothing if not a secondary trait.

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  145. please excuse PC anthropology--I know it sounded stupid, I'm just trying to cheer up bobbie, whose heart got et.

    anyhoo, re Higher Edukashun, look at the Donald Kagan article @ Frontpage.com. (i linked it, last comment--or near last--on the "hope" thread)

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  146. buddy,

    Buddy, Bobbie can find consolation in another gender statistic: males are disproportionately represented in the lower IQ ranges. As Bobbie may have experienced first hand, male morons far outnumber female assholes.

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  147. Sorry Bob, still trying to figure out why govt should provide free Adutery Care,
    but I have something for you back at the "original" (native) Seminole Thread.

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